Nursing brassiere



Oct. 14, 1952 COLEMAN 2,613,355

NURSING BRASSIERE Filed Aug. 25, 1948 INVENTOR SEPH A. COLEMAN PM W yideaflu iun ion asa-brassierc, i.. e... in. suppor i h brats,;:eye one i o he; reast pockets Patented Oct. 14, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,613,355 NURSING BRASS IERE ;Joseph.;A. ColernamNew York, N. Y., assignor to Maiden Form; Brassiere Company, Inc., New

.York, N. 11, a corporation of New. York Applicatin-August 25, 1948,Serial No. 46,159

. -,Q aim whenone-of :thebreast pockets is detached, the

entire brassiere, while itcan be said to remain on the body of. thewearer, no longer functions a as a brassiere. :That is tosay, it loses its binding effect on the body entirely, so that the only meritof nursing brassieresias heretoforeunderstood) is that they need not be removed inorder touexposea breast for nursing. An additional -defectinprior-nursing garments is thedifiiculty in securing the-parts together after nursing; for

one thing, the shoulder strap. associatedwith the .breast pocketthat is, opened becomes a ,loose end and disarranged when the pocket, is de- ,tzmhed,i and sometimes becomes difficult to find and. reachs Prime ob ect of th s invention i o prog brass e e. hich will continue. to

s 9mm; that is the im ro ed bras ere will cont u to. upport the ot er b ast. An. allied objec is improvise. a, nu ing bra siere which will maintain its shape and outline, irrespective of the open-or-closed condition of thedetaohable reast puehet 1 Thatis. th impr ved bra .s e wi hav hgsam shapean os tio o h -wea e n 91 cih brea pocke is enema h e t pockets ar intheir normal closed condition.

An ob ec l ed wit th f e i i o p vide an improved nursing brassiere which will m comedisar an e when one o t e reas se re s spel d. andrrhich. when opened,

brassiere. may; be easily and quickly converted into normal condition simply, by closing, the

b east pocket that had been opened, without manipulating the remainder of the brassiereand without-fumbling. .for loose shoulder. straps -or the like.

.Another object. of :the invention is to provide .anursing brassierehaving breast pockets which 1 are. coextensive with the. brassiere framework which encircles uthebreast.

..A further object .is to provide a nursing brasisiereithe breast pocket ofwhich is readily opened 2 to expose the breast in nursing and which is e di y cl se Forthe attainment ofthe foregoing and such other objects as may appear or be pointed out herein I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front view of theimproved nursing brassiere of this invention, with the right breast pocket unhooked; and

Fig. 2 is a rear view of the same, with the same pocket unhoohed (which now appears on the left in this figure).

The improvednursing brassiere has a pairof rear body portions, I0 at theleft (as viewed in Fig. 1) and IG seen at the left in Fig. 2. The pairof body portions ill, HP have at' their rear edges, respectively, H, ll elastic tabs 9,9", the

ends of which are fastened to. one. another by hoolr-and-eye or other fastener 8. The. pair of body portions l0, lfi terminate attheir frontal edges inlateral seams [2, 12 These seams constitute a sewed connection between the body portions l0, l0? and .thebreast pockets, wh ioh are generally designated 28, 20"; reference character 2B designating the left pocket, and 20 the right pocket, as viewed in Fig. 1. In addition to the lateral edges of the breast pockets 20, 20*, there is also connected to the lateral seams l2, l2, the two ends of a lower band 30, whichextends across the front of the brass iere and. partially around the body of the wearer.

It is understood that when the .brassire is placed on the body and the rear tab 9, 9 hooked made, is opened, the remainder of ,thegarment including the shoulder straps as well as the pockets, themselves become disarranged or loose. This, and other objections (certain of which were pointedout above), are-avoided in theimproved brassiere by the following innovations. The front body band '30 of the waist encircling loop mentioned above, viz: llix-dllrjflm-dfiw, underlies the breasts,

Inthe improved nursing brassiere of this invention there ,are further provided apair of breast-encircling loops. The right-hand loop 3 (which is on the right in Fig. 1, but on the left in Fig. 2) comprises a pair of suspensory band sections 31 34 of which 31* is the proximal, and 34 the distal section. The facing ends of the two right band sections SI 34 are joined end to end on a bias so that the two suspensory band sections present an inverted, spread-out V-formation, joined at the apex. Additionally, the facing ends of the suspensory bands 3 I 34 are sewed to the front end of the right shoulder strap 40 The rear end 45 of the right shoulder strap is sewed to the right body portion near its rear or tab 9* edge (seen on the left in Fig. 2).

Similarly, the left loop comprises a proximal suspensory band section 3| and a distal suspensory band 34, best seen on the right in Fig. 2. Similarly, their facing ends are joined together and to the front end of the left shoulder strap 40, the rear end 4| of which is sewed to the left body portion ID.

The distal ends 35", 35 of the distal suspensory bands 36*, 3 respectively are sewed to the aforesaid lateral seams, respectively l2* and 12 (see Fig. 2). The proximal or facing ends 32 32 of the proximal suspensory bands 31*, 3| are secured to one another. Additionally, these ends 32*, 32 of the proximal bands 3!", 3! are secured to the upper end Of medial stay or pillar 31 which is vertically disposed and has its lower end sewed to a central point of lower band 38. The four sections of which loops are comprised may be cut separately and sewed end to end to give a continuous length, or cut of a continuous length folded under and sewed in position to effect a change in the direction of each section with relation to sections adjacent thereto.

It is thus seen that I have provided in the improved nursing brassiere of this invention, a pair of breast encircling loops; the one on the right (i e. on the left as seen in Fig. 2) comprising distal suspensory band 3 proximal suspensory band SI front medial stay Bl, lower band (portion of) and right seam I2 The left breast encircling loop comprises proximal suspensory band 3!, distal suspensory band 34, left seam 52, lower band 30 (portion of) and front medial stay The entire area bounded by the pair of encircling loops becomes, as will now be described, a breast pocket in the improved brassiere. That is, the breast pocket is secured directly to (and can be said to be defined by), the aforesaid loops. The distal edge of right pocket 20*, which is designated 22 in Fig. 2 (where is appears on the left) is sewed to the right loop at lateral seam ET. The lower edge 23 of the pocket, or rather, most of it except for a short proximal portion, is sewed to the lower band 30. The proximal edge 21 of right pocket 20* is detachably secured to the front medial stay 31 by means of hook-and-eye or other fasteners l.

The left pocket 20 is similarly secured to the left breast-encircling loop, its distal edge 22 and lower edge 23 being permanently sewed to the lateral seam l2 and lower body band 30, respectively and its proximal edge 2! being detachably connected to the front medial stay 31 by hookand-eyes l.

The upper edges of the breast pockets are not secured, either permanently or detachably, to the respective pair of suspensory bands. Instead, this edge of the pockets is suspended from a predetermined point of the respective shoulder strap 40, (the front ends of which, it will be recalled,

are secured to the respective pair of suspensory bands, more particularly, at their apex joints). For example, the left pocket 20, Fig. 1, is suspended from its shoulder strap 40. This suspension is detachable, so that the top edge of the pocket may be dropped (and the proximal edge 21 unhooked, to expose the entire breast). For this purpose, there is sewed to the upper edge of left pocket 20 the two ends of a short piece of tape 2|, which is passed through the loop 6 of a fastening element 5, the hook 4 of which is inserted in a selected one of a plurality of channels 44 formed by sewing a piece of fabric 43 to shoulder strap 40 by a plurality of parallel lines of stitches. In this manner the supporting effect of the pocket may be adjusted. The garment itself may be further adjusted to the body of the wearer by means of the length-adjusting element 3 on the shoulder straps.

The left pocket 20 has a similar suspending loop 2| and hook element 5 with the plurality of receiving channels 44*.

It will thus be seen that the pair of breast-encircling loops, particularly, the common medial stay 31 and the pair of suspensory bands 3|, 34 and BF, 34", together with the body-encircling loop, particularly its lower body band 30, constitute a brace or framework which remains intact on the body of the wearer irrespective of the onor-oif (i. e., open or closed) condition of the breast pockets 2t), 20*. Hence, if one of the pockets is opened for nursing, the other pocket will continue its breast-supporting function; as a matter of fact, it will do this irrespective of the open-or-closed condition of the other pocket.

In opening or closing a pocket all that is required to be done is to unhook the suspension 5 (or 5*) and to unhook the proximal edge 27 (or 21*). The remainder of the improved brassiere, namely, the afore-described loops and the shoulder straps, remain intact. It should be pointed out that there is obviated the objection to nursing brassieres as heretofore made in that, when a pocket is detached, the corresponding shoulder strap presents a free and disconnected end. This cannot occur in the improved brassiere because the front ends of the shoulder straps are securely joined to the pair of suspensory bands (more particularly, at the apex joints thereof, as already described).

I claim:

1. In a nursing brassiere, in combination, a pair of rear body bands, the front edges of which terminate in lateral seams, a front body band joined at its ends to the said lateral seams, means secured to the rear facing edges of the rear body bands for detachably connecting the two to form a body encircling loop which is in underlying relation to the breasts: a left and right suspensory band, each band formed as a wide-spread inverted-V, the inner ends of each band being mutually united to each other at the front medial point of the brassiere, a front medial stay or pillar joined at its lower end to said front body band and at its upper end to the said pair of suspensory bands, the outer ends of the said pair of suspensory bands being joined to the said pair of rear body bands at their said lateral seams, thereby forming a pair of breast encircling loops; a pair of shoulder straps, the rear ends of which are joined to the said rear body bands near their facing rear edges and the front ends thereof are joined at the said apex points of said pair of suspensory bands, whereby a framework is provided which is intact on the body irrespective of the breast pockets; a pair of breast-pockets each coextensive in area with the said pair of breast-encircling loops, the distal edges of said breast pockets being sewed to the pair of body portions at their said lateral seams and the bottom edges thereof being sewed to the lower body band, the facing proximal edges of the pockets being detachably secured to the said front medial stay, and the upper edge of the pockets being detachably suspended from a predetermined point on said shoulder straps, whereby the top edge of a breast pocket may be dropped and its proximal edge unfastened to expose the full breast.

2. In a, nursing brassiere, in combination, a pair of rear body portions, 2. front body band joined at its ends to the front edges of said pair of rear body portions and elastic tabs secured to the rear facing edges of the body portions for detachably connecting the two to form a body encircling loop which is in underlying relation to the breasts; a left and right suspensory strap each joined to the front medial pillar point of the brassiere, a front medial stay joined at its front end to said lower body band and at its upper end to the suspensory straps; a pair of shoulder straps, the rear ends of which are joined to the said rear body portions and the front ends thereof are joined at central points of said pair of suspensory straps, whereby a framework is provided which is intact on the body irrespective of the breast pockets; a pair of breast-pockets each coextensive in area with the said pair of breasteneircling loops, the distal edges of said breastpockets being sewed to the pair of rear body portions and the bottom edges thereof being sewed to the front body band, the facing proximal edges of the pockets being detachably secured to the said front medial stay, and the upper edge of the pockets being detachably suspended from a predetermined point on said shoulder straps, whereby the top edge of a breast pocket may be dropped and its proximal edge unfastened to expose the full breast.

3. In a nursing brassire, in combination, a pair of rear body portions, a body front band, an upper suspensory band, a front medial pillar stay joined at its lower end to said lower front band and at its upper end to the medial point of the said upper suspensory band, the ends of the said suspensory band being joined to the said pair of breast encircling loops; a pair of shoulder straps, the rear ends of which are joined to the said rear body portions and the front ends thereof are joined to the said upper suspensory band, whereby a framework is provided which is intact on the body irrespective of the breast pockets; a pair of breast-pockets, each co-extensive in area with the said pair of breast-encircling loops, the distal edges of said breast-pockets being sewed to the pair of rear body portions and the bottom edges thereof being sewed to the body front band, the facing proximal edges of the pockets being detachably secured to the said front medial stay, and the upper edge of the pockets being detachably suspended from a pre-determined point on said shoulder straps, whereby the top edge of a breast pocket may be dropped and its proximal edge unfastened to expose the full breast.

JOSEPH A. COLEMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,502,000 Herrick July 22, 1924 2,149,819 Rubinstein Mar. 7, 1939 2,315,614 Glasser Apr. 6, 1943 2,407,220 Blocker Sept. 10, 1946 2,454,153 Glick Nov. 16, 1948 2,470,847 Gluckin May 24, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 393,186 Great Britain June 1, 1933 816,115 France Apr. 26, 1937 

